Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

ARKO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Capital One Financial began coverage on shares of Arko in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $8.00 target price for the company. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Arko from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Arko from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Arko from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $8.50 to $7.50 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.35.

Arko Price Performance

ARKO stock opened at $4.58 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $4.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.54. The company has a market capitalization of $525.23 million, a P/E ratio of 28.63 and a beta of 0.74. Arko has a 52-week low of $3.51 and a 52-week high of $7.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.86, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.63.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.17) by $0.05. Arko had a net margin of 0.27% and a return on equity of 8.88%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Arko will post 0.2 EPS for the current year.

Arko Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. Arko’s payout ratio is presently 400.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arko

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new stake in shares of Arko during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $92,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Arko during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $368,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of Arko by 90.9% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 4,639 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Arko during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $195,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Arko during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Institutional investors own 78.29% of the company’s stock.

About Arko

Arko Corp. operates convenience stores in the United States. It operates through Retail, Wholesale, Fleet Fueling, and GPMP segments. The Retail segment engages in the sale of fuel and merchandise to retail consumers. Its Wholesale segment supplies fuel to third-party dealers and consignment agents. The Fleet Fueling segment supplies fuel to proprietary and third-party cardlock, and issuance of proprietary fuel cards.